The invention relates to a process for the stocking (storage) of (pack) blanks and for feeding these to a folding unit of a packaging machine, especially blanks for the production of hinge-lid packs for cigarettes, the blanks being connected to one another to form a continuous web of material and being severed from this for processing. The invention relates, furthermore, to an apparatus for carrying out the process.
Supplying high-performance packaging machines with the necessary packaging material presents a special problem. Packs made of thin cardboard, for example for the production of hinge-lid packs for cigarettes, have hitherto mainly been produced from factory-prefabricated pack blanks which are delivered in stacks and which are introduced into a magazine of the packaging machine. The feeding of the blank magazine involves a high outlay in terms of labour because of the rapid consumption of the blanks.
Alternatively to this, blanks consisting of (thin) cardboard can also be supplied to the packaging machine in the form of a continuous web of material. In this case, the blanks are preformed within the web of material by stamping and embossing, but are connected to one another, to form the web of material, via residual connections or thin webs. In this known proposal, the residual connections are arranged in the region of those parts of the blanks which remain concealed in the finished pack (DE-A-3,7l6,897).